7.23.2010

7.12.2010

The 2010 New Hampshire Senate Race is starting up. It's an especially hopeful time for Republican candidates in the state hoping to capitalize on the supposedly unpopular Democratic rule. So lately we've been treated to political advertisements for some of these fresh-faced political hopefuls. Not surprisingly, there's no one in the field who's particularly exciting or who seems to have any knowledge of political things.

One man with disappointing advertisements (and probably politics) is Republican Senatorial Candidate Bill Binnie. His radio ad begins with "Republican Businessman Bill Binnie has a plan to get America back to work." The whole ad is filled with political assumptions that are identical to the assumptions of the Democrats. Embedded in that single quote is a number of flawed ideas. The idea that it's the government's job to get us back to work. There's the idea that a single Senator can effect great change in our laws. There's the tired assertion that somehow competency in leading in a business environment entails competency in politics. This is particularly offensive because the idea that the government is a business is untrue and the parallels are realistically few, and ought to be few. Finally, Mr. Binnie's ad is just plain cheesy. There's nothing unique, nothing that expresses any developed understanding of a political philosophy - just tired Republican soundbites about cutting wasteful spending and curbing earmarks - things the Republicans have failed on delivering for years.

I hope in my lifetime I get to hear a politician who can articulate a coherent philosophy rather than merely cheap and vacuous sloganeering.

Pretentious Precepts

"First Things means, first, that the first thing to be said about public life is that public life is not the first thing. First Things means, second, that there are first things, in the sense of first principles, for the right ordering of public life."

“A free society cannot survive if we are so free that nothing is expected of us.”